Category Archives: Uncategorised

What’s with the rain?!

Christina, Felix, Dianne, Jamie, Richie and I are off to Melbourne next month and so we got together for a meal on Friday night to sort out what we’re going to be doing when we’re there. I forgot my camera but Di took a couple of pics which she might end up plugging on her blog.

On Saturday Christina and I checked out the Danks Street Festival which was totally rained out. Danks St in Waterloo has become the new yuppie place to be for fine fresh foods + designer furniture.

Lined with food stalls selling amazing stuff which we were itching to try.

The weather held up for all of 15 minutes though and then it started pouring.

Instead of eating outside (kinda the whole point of the Festival) we ate at Fratelli Fresh instead. Such a cool concept store which is basically a warehouse in which you have to walk through the loading dock to get to the fresh food supermarket and then go up industrial staircases to get to the hidden cafe.

Advan have just updated their web site with some photos from their industry night. Some funny pics in there for sure!

LOL Nads.

Charles and I

What’s so funny?

Mark wins the door prize.

More pictures on the Advan Site

I’ve just finished this logo design for Australian Photographer and friend Mark Pakula.

I love designing logos more than anything else when it comes to design, maybe because they’re more about form, playing with letters, symbols and shapes not to mention they’re super challenging as they have to represent others.

I always start in black and white first as working with colours too early can get kinda messy, especially when the client hates a colour you’re using in the mock-ups. Working in black and white also assures that the logo can be photocopied or faxed.

Mark’s logo came about fairly easy. I had the music up loud and I was having fun with it. We went through a few refinements and in the end we have 2 logos which we’re both happy with (it’s a great place to be when you’ve met a client half way and both parties are happy with the end product).

Be sure to check out Mark’s Blog here. Next up is his site which I also get to work on so stay tuned!

I’ve been having a blast on the Anthem lately. Ever since I’ve gotten rid of the clip-in pedals and replaced them with flat pedals I’ve had a lot more confidence and I’m now doing stupid shit on the bike.

It’s still skittish going downhill, especially on loose stuff, and it’s nowhere near as playful as my Reign but it’s still the fastest bike up a hill, even without clip-ins it’s fast.

I’ve gone a step further now and installed a Joplin on the bike, it’s a seatpost which has a remote control on the handlebars which allows me to raise and lower my saddle whilst riding. It’ll allow me to drop the saddle on the fly for downhill stuff which will hopefully = more fun! Fun in this case comes at a weight penalty though and the bike now sits at 11.4kg’s with computer, lights, joplin, flat pedals and dirt (she was 10.7kg’s without pedals brand new).

Joplin cable routed on the downtube.

Cockpit is looking damn busy with the front fork lockout on the left, lights in the middle, computer and joplin seatpost controller on the right.

Ever since the Ti build was finished the Hardrock has been hanging there without parts (the fork went onto the Ti). Inspired by Jarods new wheels + Jings new VOODOO I thought I’d put a bit of love into the old Hardrock to get it back on the road.

More images here.

Today it was a scorching 35 degrees inland (I was visiting the boys at JDMyard) and to make matters worse I was stuck without aircon on the M5 on the way home due to a savage car accident which stalled everyone for at least 30 minutes. Stevey followed me home though (he got there a lot quicker than I did on his motorbike) and we went for a swim at the rock pool down the road. Water was freeeezing cold but damn it was great. I brought a snorkel down with me and spotted a huge octopus, the largest one I’ve ever seen in real life. It’s body was the size of 2 fists and it was missing 2 tentacles. We dunked a few beers then we thought we’d get the death trap out for a spin.

Stevey has a go at the Deathtrap!

Quote: Originally Posted by Tonba: Apart from no aircon, how do you find the stripped interior? Do you get sick of it? What was your reason for doing it??

The reason why I stripped it? There are a few reasons. Sure, weight was one, the rear seats were sun faded and never fit right with the roll-cage back there. I had an audio system in there but prefered listening to the car than music, so that went (as well as weight).

I was, and still am, VERY inspired by race car interiors. How do you explain something you love so much? The rawness of it, how tough it feels, all the extra noises you hear, that sound deadening crap is like censorship. Seeing a freshly painted stripped interior with cage does more for me than a freshly painted exterior any day.

If I had the option from factory to not have all that tar/sound deadening material, extra wiring, audio etc I would go for it. Even with the Jazz. If it was an easy job to strip it to the level I took the GT-R I’d do it in a heartbeat.

Pics from last nights great Loftus night ride. Great weather yesterday made for a dry trail. At 7.30PM (our usual meet up time) there was still light.

The MCC boys (David, Sam and Ash).

Sam.

Jings new Voodoo SS.

David.

Felix.

David, freak face off picture!

Photography by Kelvin Ng.

With over 70,000 views, Babalouie’s Hakosuka build thread in the members rides section on JDMST is the most viewed thread on the forum and so it was an obvious car to feature.

I interviewed Babs (Kevin) over MSN (had to force him to download and install it! Old man he says!). He’s a walking JDM encyclopedia, a great driver and he’s been a great inspiration to me over the years.

Click here to check out the feature.

We were in Alexandria today buying an outdoor setting from Harvey Norman and we found this guy (his name is Justin too) writing a note to put on Suga’s R32. Nice to have the old and new next to each other to compare the differences. I love the old shape, lots. Boxy, squat (he did have it lowered) like a bulldog.